[Note: Due to a problem at the server, the discussion portion of the Round Table was not transcribed] Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum Round Table! We're BAaaaack! We are in the process of restoring the site and the chat configuration after a disastrous lightning strike DURING the backup a week ago. If you are using the full Java option today, it ought to look pretty much the same as it was. The Java Light and html options should be reconfigured for our session tomorrow. Please note that we have lost our mailing lists also, and that if you would like to receive email updates on our chat events, you will need to re-subscribe to the EIIP list. The address is http://www.speccomm.com:81/guest/RemoteListSummary/EIIP Also, we have posted a site status page at http://www.emforum.org/status.htm Please check that page as it will be updated as we restore functionality, and also has links to other some of the other mail lists we are restoring. Please also note that we are consolidating our phase and sector lists into one list called forum@emforum.org The good news is that we have acquired the newest version of eShare. We hope that you find it now works faster and better. We will be implementing some of the new features available, so watch the status page for that as well. Thanks for your patience. Last week I was in Boulder, Colorado, so that is part of the reason for the delay in restoring the site. Today I will be presenting some of the highlights of the 24th Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. This is sponsored by the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center of the University of Colorado at Boulder. This was my first time attending and it was been especially exciting for me personally ... For the first time I am getting to meet many of our participants and previous presenters in the Virtual Forum, and I made it a point to introduce myself to as many of them as I could find to thank them. I also was on the lookout for future presentations, as this conference reflects the state of the art, not only in the research community, but also from practitioners. I do not have a date yet, but each of the sessions had a recorder, and the proceedings will be compiled and posted on the Internet. You can find proceedings from the last few Workshops at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/ss/ss.html and I expect that is where this year's will be when it is ready. If you have been with us earlier this spring, you will know that the Hazards Center has just completed a major project, which is referred to as the Second Assessment. The emphasis in the Second Assessment is linking disaster mitigation to sustainable development and this has served as the theme or primary focus this year's Workshop. The initial plenary session included Dennis Mileti making some introductory remarks on this work, with additional comments by Mike Armstrong of FEMA Mitigation Directorate, Brent Woodworth of the IBM Crisis Response Team (both former EIIP presenters) ... and Bill Hooke, from NOAA. Some provacative remarks were made during that session about political and market forces, raising the issue of the broader context, at least in the U.S. This session was followed by Director Witt of FEMA. This was my first opportunity to hear him speak in person, so I especially enjoyed it. Not surprisingly, he talked about how FEMA is already heading in the direction of the recommendations in the Second Assessment, particularly with Project Impact. Other items I noted down about things that are in the works according to Director Witt ... if Congress approves, then SBA will make low interest loans in Project Impact communities during the next fiscal year for retrofitting, etc. -- Fannie Mae will also be involved in making up to $20,000 10-year unsecured loans for mitigation. They are talking with major insurance companies about offering premium reductions for individuals who do retrofits or incorporate mitigation measures, and according to Director Witt, "they almost have takers." On Monday I attended a very interesting session on Local and State Responsibility for Hazard Losses. There were several sessions going on at the same time, and you wished you could make them all. Other sessions on Monday included: Teaching Natural Hazards: Approaches and Tools, Y2K An Unnatural Hazard, World View and Disasters II - Culture, Science, and the Millenium ... The Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System of NWS, which looks like will receive funding this next year, Financing Emergency and Hazards Management: Some New Ideas ... Business Vulnerability: Impacts and Planning, Sharing Risk Information With the Public: Helpful or Dangerous? Earthquake Early Warning in Southern California, Oklahoma City Tornados: What We've Learned, with Randy Duncan who was here for a Round Table... and Lessons from Abroad. The plenary session on Tuesday morning was devoted to hurricane Mitch and its impact in Central America. Our good friend Steve Bender participated in that session and made the point that efforts to reduce vulnerability MUST be incorporated into all redevelopment efforts, and not be viewed as an activity apart. The new director of the equivalent of FEMA in Honduras spoke, and there is a man with some very big challenges ahead. He exudes confidence and related how they had been able to mobilize for their elections several moths prior to Mitch ... and wants to bring the same community level mobilization for disaster response. He is the first civilian director of that agency. This was followed by another plenary session on Fostering Local Sustainability and featured Susan Savage of the award winning city of Tulsal, OK and their efforts towards mitigation. In the afternoon, Disaster Resistant Universities, Popular Culture and Disasters, Space Weather Hazards, New Challenges for Local Emergency Managers, Counting Losses Due to Hazards, the NFIP ... A Vision for Higher Education, Decision Supporft Systems, Community- Based Mitigation and Preparedness, Land Use Planning and the Insurance Industry, and How and Why People Die in Disasters. On Tuesday afternoon, I also participated in a panel on Information Technology for Crisis Management, and got to put in my two cents worth! The sessions were very similar in format to our panel sessions, although each lasted an hour and a half. Some of the most interesting discussions were during the Q&A since this was a very knowledgeable audience, for sure. Wednesday was the wrap up with a few additional sessions and an opportunity to listen to some of the pioneers in the field, followed by closing remarks by Dennis Miletti. Researchers also had an opportunity to present their findings, and a few special meetings took place concurrently with the Workshop. One of these was a group of Japanese and Americans getting together to exchange ideas ... We also participated in a special meeting of the EqIP, the Earthquake Information Providers group. All in all it was a terrific time. The very first order of business was for everyone to introduce themselves on Monday morning, and we were also instructed to display our name tags prominently. The venue was extremely pleasant, and we also had a picnic on the top of a mountain. The bus ride there was a thrill! [A discussion followed with other Workshop attendees offering their impressions, and general discussion of the issue of increasing communication between researchers and practitioners.]